I have been doing art ever since I could remember. My brother and I used to make still-life drawings and paintings instead of sleeping at siesta time (to our grandmother’s dismay 😂). As we grew older, we really got into anime so after doing homework, we would sketch our favorite Ghost Fighter and Dragon Ball Z characters on our own sketchbooks. Looking back, I was lucky to have been introduced, though self-taught, (I was an eager child! 😅) to art at an early age. Life was simpler then. No internet, no need for likes and validation, just mere expression through art. ✍

Tippy Go shares how she started her career in art and blogging with an anonymous Tumblr account that starred Tipsy and Pongo.

Fast forward to today, as a young professional trying to strive in the working and blogging world, I tend to overthink whatever I create. 😱 May it be a blog post, an art piece or a mere Instagram post. I know what you’re thinking, it should all be simple. In reality or at least in my mind, it was not.

Attending the Creative Flatlay and Color Mixing workshop by Tippy Go of Googly Gooeys and Faber Castell Philippines made me learn some tips that I could apply in various situations as a lifestyle blogger, an aspiring artist or as a regular employee. 😋

1. Do not be afraid to reallyuse your paint. 💦🖌

Kilig! I love how Faber Castell’s Connector Watercolor Paints! <3

The first thing that I learned in the workshop was simple: Do not be afraid to use your paint. I admit, I gasped when I saw how much Tippy pressed the brush on her watercolor. I wasn’t used to using that much paint in one stroke. Right there, I realized that I’ve been too careful not to use up my art materials that I was actually limiting my art (or myself) to a certain extent.

“Torn” – One of my earlier watercolor paintings

“Girl plus Fish” – I went avante garde on this one. This is my sister’s face on a fish. HAHA.

I was quite used to a washed-out style of watercolor painting. The workshop, however, opened my eyes to a whole new aesthetic of vibrant and fuller colors, using as much paint as can be used. I actually like it! 💗

Just like in real life, it’s okay to try new things, make a mess and commit mistakes. It’s how you learn! No one would know that mixing all the colors would produce brown if someone weren’t daring enough to mix all the colors together, right? Make use of all your God-given talents to the fullest. Regardless if the outcome would be successful or not, at least you tried your best.

2. Master the basics and you’re good to go. 🏋🏼

Trivia: It was in the 6th grade when I first held a Faber Castell watercolour pencil. My classmates all had their own box. Right then and there, I knew I wanted one but I never got one until high school. Hahaha.

Lacking colors? It’s not a problem if you have the basics. In my other life, I was taught to mix primary colors to get secondary and tertiary colors. However, during the workshop, I learned a new approach in color mixing. This time using cyan, magenta and yellow (plus white if you want pastel colors). Yes, like the colors of your colored printer. Mixing these colors produce more vibrant and more realistic shades of pinks, oranges, greens and tons of other colors!

Tippy shows the different approaches in selecting color combinations.

By mixing different levels of C,Y and M, you can get your favorite colors. Dagdag-bawas lang. 😂 My favorite mix, of course, is teal. I love teal! 💙 To get teal, you can mix green and light blue but you can also get it by mixing the right balance of these “primary” colors.

Here’s my sketch of Kol from the Vampire Diaries. I tried mixing the teal right. Emphasis on “tried.” 😀

Art is not about having the most complete materials or buying the complete range of Pantone colors. (Although I’m sure it’s any artist or art enthusiast’s dream to have the widest selection of colors at his disposal 😏) You just need to master the basics and put your creativity and resourcefulness into action. We need to know the foundations first. Like in math, we’d learn how a formula was derived before we use the simpler and shorter formula. This way, if we forget the short formula, we won’t get lost. We could always derive it using the basic formulas. 😉

3. Mix on your palette and not on the paper. 🎨 (if the paper’s not thick enough 😁).

Bonus Tip#1 Make your palette good as new by washing it with water.

This next tip had been repeatedly emphasized by Tippy during the workshop. (I felt like she was specifically addressing our table! 😂) Mixing the paint on the paper could, nay will, scratch it and ruin the painting. Guilty as charged! I was always too impatient so I would brush the paint on paper even when the color wasn’t right yet. Since the color was still hilaw, I would retouch it again and again until I got the color I needed. By then, the paper would have been scratched too thin. 😪

Bonus Tip #2: Press your brush harder so more paint and water are absorbed.

The lesson here is to take the time and enjoy the process of color mixing. Sometimes, I tend to rush things because I already want to see the finish product. Haste makes waste, something I learned from Citizen Army Training (CAT) back in high school. Those were the days. 💪

4. Inspiration is everywhere. 🍩👁

“Be Inspired from doughnuts to the runway.” I want doughnuts now. Haha!

Tippy shared that she takes inspiration from diverse places: from doughnuts 🍩 in a quaint cafe or the latest fashion trends 👗 on the runway. She observes the colors and the patterns. Anything that catches her eye, she transforms into art.

I thought that all artists experience that one grand magical moment of inspiration that pushes them to make their art. I was waiting for that moment to come so that I could continue doing my watercolor paintings. Maybe I needed to have a picturesque vista of the Eiffel Tower, or I needed to splurge more on painting materials, or that I needed more free time to spend on finishing just one painting. But these were all excuses I made for myself.

After the workshop, I got inspired to paint my favorite meal, House Special Set. Yum!

As Tippy proved, inspiration is everywhere. Anything can inspire you to create art. It need not be a painting. It could be nailing a flatlay photo on your Instagram feed. Or writing an insightful blog post. We just need to look around. The world around us is one big, beautifully curated Pinterest page ready to be plucked for inspiration.

Even a messy station can be flatlaid. 🙂

Amiciness got an invite to the Creative Flatlay and Color Mixing Workshop held by Tippy Go of Googly Gooeys and organized by Nuffnang Philippines in partnership with Faber Castell Philippines. It was held in Acceler8 Coworking Space last October. Thanks guys! 😘

What other art-related tips have you applied in your life? How do you keep your life colorful and creative? Sound off in the comments below. 👇

About Gabby Paras

Gabby Paras is a full-time dreamer with a heart for everything under (and over) the sun. An industrial engineer by profession but a frustrated writer, singer, actor... everything. You name it, he's tried and done it. Know more about Gabby Paras...